The Virgin and the Gypsy *** (1970, Joanna Shimkus, Franco Nero, Honor Blackman) – Classic Movie Review 8505

D H Lawrence’s minor tale of an English clergyman’s prim and proper virginal daughter Yvette (played by Canadian actress Joanna Shimkus) who falls for the sexual charms of a glowering, pale-eyed, seductively virile gypsy (Italian icon Franco Nero) is brought to the screen in an elegant and attractive production by director Christopher Miles in the 1970 British romantic drama The Virgin and the Gypsy.

Though both real raw sexual passion and the novel’s dark undertones are lacking, Alan Plater’s screenplay is literate and intelligent, it is beautifully shot in picturesque English Midlands backdrops by Bob Huke, and the acting is fine, particularly by an impressive Shimkus. There are useful support performances too from Honor Blackman as Mrs Fawcett, Mark Burns as Major Eastwood, Maurice Denham as the Rector, Fay Compton as Grandma, Kay Walsh as Aunt Cissie, Norman Bird as Uncle Fred, Imogen Hassall as the gypsy’s wife, Jeremy Bulloch as Leo and Roy Holder as Bob.

It is shot in the heart of D H Lawrence country on the Derbyshire estates of the Dukes of Devonshire and Rutland near Matlock.

The novel was discovered after the author’s death in 1930.

Christopher Miles went on to film the 1981 D H Lawrence biopic Priest of Love, also written by Alan Plater.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8505

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